Messi’s World Cup Penalty Conversion Rate Falls to 50% After Second Miss Against Egypt, Trailing Ronaldo

ATLANTA — Lionel Messi’s missed penalty against Egypt on Tuesday has pushed his career World Cup penalty conversion rate down to 50 percent, widening the gap between the Argentine captain and longtime rival Cristiano Ronaldo, who has converted 80 percent of his own World Cup penalty attempts, excluding shootouts, according to data from MessivsRonaldo.app.

Tuesday’s miss, which came in the 20th minute of Argentina’s Round of 16 match at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, marked the second time this tournament Messi has failed to convert from the spot in regulation play, following a similar miss earlier in the group stage against Austria. That earlier miss had briefly denied Messi the chance to become the all-time leading scorer in men’s World Cup history, though he went on to score twice later in that match to secure the record regardless.

Ronaldo, by contrast, has built a reputation as a more consistent penalty taker across World Cup competition specifically, even though broader career statistics show a closer overall picture between the two players. According to career-wide figures compiled by MessivsRonaldo.app, Ronaldo has converted approximately 84 percent of his penalties across his entire career, compared to roughly 78 percent for Messi, a gap driven in part by Ronaldo having taken significantly more penalty attempts over a longer career.

The disparity narrows further when factoring in penalty shootouts specifically, where Messi has actually posted a slightly higher career success rate than Ronaldo, converting 11 of 13 shootout attempts compared to Ronaldo’s 12 of 14.

Despite Tuesday’s miss, Messi remains tied for the lead in this year’s tournament’s Golden Boot race with seven goals, level with Norway’s Erling Haaland and France’s Kylian Mbappe. Argentina’s Round of 16 match against Egypt continued Tuesday afternoon as both sides looked to advance toward a quarterfinal matchup against the winner of the Switzerland-Colombia tie later this week.